LAST CHANCE BOOKS

This enemies-to-lovers romance includes a business rivalry, a deadbeat mom, and a last-gasp attempt to save a family store.

Recent high school graduate Madeline Moore has grown up working at Books & Moore, her family’s bookstore, and she would love nothing more than to take over running it after college. She and Benny, her half brother, have been raised in Pennsylvania by their maternal aunt, Astrid, and Benny’s father, Sterling, who lives in the area. Astrid manages the bookstore while the teens’ flaky mother is off trying to become an actress in California. The store’s livelihood is threatened when chain bookstore Prologue opens up across the street, quickly becoming Madeline’s nemesis. After an encounter with maddeningly attractive local boy Jasper Hamada leaves Madeline swooning, she discovers that his family owns Prologue, and he works there—which leads to a series of sabotaging pranks between the two. Madeline’s world collapses after her aunt announces that due to financial problems, the store is going to close at the end of the summer—and that her mom is moving back. The plot moves along briskly with romantic tension, sex-positive moments, comedic beats, and Madeline’s determination to save the store. Madeline has been bullied for her weight and expresses internalized fatphobia. She, her aunt, and her mother are cued as White; Benny has brown skin (he and Sterling are of indeterminate ethnicity) and Jasper is Japanese American.

A solid rom-com.